Officials on the Board of Trustees at Pasadena City College confirmed this week that they are no longer inviting Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, a PCC alumnus, to speak at the school’s commencement ceremony, fearing that his explicit sex photos that leaked back in 2009 could “tarnish the school’s reputation.”

As the Pasadena City College Courierreports, there is much confusion among Board members regarding why Black was initially invited to speak and whether the fact that his sex photos depicted “unsafe” sex were the real reason for his shunning.

Either way, it is clear that Dustin Lance Black was invited to PCC’s commencement ceremony and was later disinvited by Robert Bell, Vice President of Academic affairs and student services. Black has called the action “heartbreaking, hurtful and wrong headed.”

Board President Anthony Fellow tells the Courier that Black’s nude photos could be potentially damaging to PCC’s reputation because two other sex scandals thrust the college into national headlines last year — Hugo Schwyzer, the “porno professor” admitted to sleeping with students and Warren Swil, a journalism instructor, admitted to showing students nude photos of himself. “We just don’t want to give PCC a bad name,” Fellow said.

Robert Bell, the Vice President of Academic Affairs, a.k.a. the guy who disinvited Dustin Lance Black, attributed Black’s “premature” invite to a “major miscommunication” among “too many people” involved in the inviting process. Though Student Trustee Simon Fraser confirmed he had sent an official email on behalf of the Associate Dean of Student Life that read “We would like to formally invite Mr. Black to conduct the commencement address,” Bell argues that “confirmation was never made with the administration.”

On Monday, Bell sent the following email to Black’s assistant:

I wish to inform you that Mr. Black will not need to rearrange his busy schedule to appear as commencement speaker. I understand that Mr. Black’s time is valuable and important and, again, I apologize for the delay in finalizing this with you and him.

Fraser, the Student Trustee who send the original invitation, spoke out against the board’s decision at an Associate Students meeting last week, contending that it was homophobic because the photos depicted unprotected sex and were “not viewed as intimate contact between two adults but as a promotion of unsafe sexual practices.” “We are held to such a different standard where any single misstep is a bad thing,” he said.

Black is considering taking legal action, according to a statement he gave the Courier. “The offer was made,” it reads. “I accepted the offer, booked flights, cancelled work to make room for the honor. It is heartbreaking, hurtful and wrong headed.”

UPDATE:

Black has written an open letter to the PCC students he’d hoped to speak to, saying he “did nothing wrong and I refuse to be shamed for this any longer” and wonder if his invitation would have been rescinded if he were a heterosexual man or woman. Read the full letter here.

If it applies to heterosexuals, then I do not have a problem. If it is only because he is gay… then this is nonsense.

Apr 17, 2014 at 6:18 pm · @Reply ·

Persa

Of course it doesn’t apply to heterosexals. Heterosexuals have unprotected consensual sex all the time and they are no more LESS likely to transmit STIs but have the added risk of producing an unwanted child.
This is plain old homophobia and heterosexisn couched in a “safer sex” ruse.

If Mr. Black and his private sexual partner were both NEGATIVE, they were at no risk of spreading any STIs.

Further, this was a private sexual encounter not some public performance. EVERYONE has sex, there is nothing shameful in two consenting adults of sound mind having sex. It’s their business.

The disinvite was rediculous and wrong.

Apr 17, 2014 at 6:39 pm · @Reply ·

courthousedoc

I as hoping they were sex pictures with Tom Daley. Damn.

Apr 17, 2014 at 6:40 pm · @Reply ·

hotboyvb81

maybe Tom called asking them to drop him- doesn’t want bf around all those young guys….

Apr 17, 2014 at 7:25 pm · @Reply ·

hotboyvb81

that…and the fact that DLB was a regular at Bryan Singer’s all boy pool parties- maybe with that in the headlines and his nude pics, there maybe more stories out there…..

Apr 17, 2014 at 7:27 pm · @Reply ·

Bjk

If the pictures did not exist, the problem would not exist. I think the university would have had problem with anyone who posted sex pictures, gay or straight. I don’t think posting your sex life online counts as being a good role model.

Apr 17, 2014 at 9:27 pm · @Reply ·

Kieran

Say what you will about Dustin, but he wasn’t responsible for killing or maiming anybody.

But it’s fine in America to invite and pay disgraced War criminals like Condoleeza Rice, Dick Cheney, or Paul Wolfowitz to give college commencement addresses. Go figure.

Apr 17, 2014 at 9:39 pm · @Reply ·

Desmodius

@Bjk: Dustin did not post them, nor did he ever plan on having anyone see them but he and his ex. They were stolen from his ex’s computer and sold to the highest bidder. The people that released them were sued and Dustin won the case.

Apr 17, 2014 at 10:49 pm · @Reply ·

Fang

Ok, I just need to ask about the elephant in the room and get it out there: WHERE THE HELL did those nude photos of DLB go? The internet is cleared of them. Surely DLB doesn’t have the power to take those nude shots off the net, right??

Difficult situation for sure but the school is trying to now deal with a situation where there are no good options. If he’s invited, they will catch crap for it. If un-invited (as is the case) the school will get DLB worked up.

As far as the photos go, I was unaware of the fact the pics being stolen from his X’s computer. Interesting. I seem to recall a certain baseball player having his pics stolen from his girlfriend’s computer. They were near nude selfies. That ball player just signed an agreement with the RedSox last year.. Didn’t hurt him.

My question is – if nude pictures or even sexual pictures are taken illegally (aka hacked) does that make a difference? I don’t know the answer to that question but would be interesting to hear what folks say.

Apr 18, 2014 at 12:20 am · @Reply ·

Cam

An unknown community college is afraid that it’s reputation will be harmed because pictures of one of their alumni having sex surfaced?

Yes, because kids who go to a community college are so discerning about the sex lives of alumni. Frankly the fact that one of their alumni had actually gone on to bigger and better seems like it would overshadow anything else.

Apr 18, 2014 at 9:37 am · @Reply ·

sharkiepoo

DLB is 100% right. Those photos were illegally distributed. He statement cannot be improved upon. His status and what he chooses to do in bed with another consenting adult is none of anybody else’s business.

Apr 18, 2014 at 10:11 am · @Reply ·

hotboyvb81

in his open letter, he makes the school sound like anti gay bigots- that’s a lie….they had 2 str8 sex scandals that have brought them bad news, they were merely trying to avoid a third.

Apr 18, 2014 at 10:33 am · @Reply ·

drivendervish

This decision may well come from some homophobia but IMHO DLB used extremely poor judgement allowing for the pictures to be taken and he should just drop this issue without making a big legal case out of it. Those pictures are going to follow him around for the rest of his life and will likely influence the opinions of everyone from potential employers to new boyfriends in some way or another.

Apr 18, 2014 at 11:34 am · @Reply ·

TinoTurner

Hey Dustin, your actions have consequences. Period.

Apr 18, 2014 at 11:52 am · @Reply ·

Charlie in Charge

@TinoTurner: His actions have consequences? What the hell, do you never have sex? Should every gay guy who has an x-rated picture of themselves be shamed kicked to the curb?

Apr 18, 2014 at 12:10 pm · @Reply ·

hotboyvb81

we live in a world where everything we do has the potential to be exposed and there are consequences for that. People need to think!

Apr 18, 2014 at 12:56 pm · @Reply ·

sejjo

I’m afraid DLB is right. If it had been a straight couple, there would be no issue. Gays are held at a different standard.

Totally agree. All we are doing is perpetuating gay shame. As I mentioned in what I wrote, it was OK when a baseball player had his pictures stolen and shared with others on the Internet but it seems somehow things are different in this case. Why might that be?

Apr 18, 2014 at 2:57 pm · @Reply ·

barkomatic

I work for a university (not this one) and I can tell that senior level administrators operate in a total vacuum. It’s as if the outside world isn’t an entirely real place for them, and that any decision they make will have no consequences.

Black was the victim here, his photos were stolen and he wasn’t doing anything illegal. I didn’t even know Pasadena City College even existed but now that I do I have an entirely negative image of it.

“in his open letter, he makes the school sound like anti gay bigots- that’s a lie….they had 2 str8 sex scandals that have brought them bad news, they were merely trying to avoid a third.
_______________

No, their straight scandal was a teacher fucking his students. That isn’t the same thing as an alumni who had sex.

Apr 18, 2014 at 5:30 pm · @Reply ·

hotboyvb81

yes- but they were straight scandals…the pics have caused considerable controversy over the years- a number of charity groups/AIDS groups have dropped Black over them- the school is hardly unique in disassociating itself from Black…bottom line, it’s one more thing the school doesn’t want to deal with- especially on graduation day, when the story is/should be about the graduates- not Black!

Apr 18, 2014 at 6:14 pm · @Reply ·

Geoff B

If this (the pictures) was some new development I would feel differently, but I saw the story about the pictures years ago. On this very site. Anyone capable of a Google search could vet any guest speaker in minutes. They at least owe him an apology and reimbursement for his expenses.

Apr 19, 2014 at 2:42 am · @Reply ·

CWfan

@hotboyvb81: can you tell us the names of these 5 teenagers that you say he’s dated in the last 4 years? Obviously, there’s Tom Daley, who he’s been dating for about a year now, so that leaves 4 other teenagers in the 3 years prior to that – names please, since you seem to know a lot about his dating record…